Hi everybody, I'm Maurizio and this is my very first post on CGSociety!
This is the job I did for a University project, I'm using 3DS-max 2011 so I decided to model and animate a Phoenix that goes up in flames and flies away. Here the model i made since now:
I know this firts motel sucks, that's why i am here to ask you to express an opinion about that, and to give me some suggestion to make it better and better and better. Therefore this is my first model and I'm here for learning
Thanx everyone, I hope to get lots of responses from all of you guys. Bye

Ok,
First question, is this supposed to be realistic or cartoonish. Either way a good start would be to get some reference of birds. It appears that the wings are connected in such a way as to make possible animation very difficult and the legs are not modeled to bend easily at logical joints. Build your meshes the way things are in real life.

Second, an image of the wireframe or mesh would be helpful so that the construction can be evaluated.

Well, first of all thanx a lot for the answer, I really appreciate that.
This phoenix is supposed to be half way from realistic to cartoniish, I'd like it to be more realistic but you know as first project nobody wants to help me to make it realistic cause it's very difficilt. I took references from some birds because the phoenix is a mixture of different birds: the legs are from a pheasant, the beack is eagle like, and the body is like a bird named "egretta"... It's complicated to make a realistic fusion of different animal shapes...
Now i post you some pictures of the wireframe, so that you can tell me how do you think an animation could be possible in a plausible way.

Understanding bird anatomy would be a good start, even if you want to create a stylized one:
For instance, bird legs have the usual joints: hips, knee and ankle, the difference is their propportions and placement.

Understanding bird anatomy would be a good start, even if you want to create a stylized one:
For instance, bird legs have the usual joints: hips, knee and ankle, the difference is their propportions and placement.

After your help I looked at some bird skeleton and i updated my phoenix. Here some renderings
Can't wait to hear your suggestions!

Like you did with the wings, alpha mapped feathers distributed on the body?

The point is: i put the feathers one by one on the body, but they are not perfectly connected with the body, so i hoped there was an authomatic way to put feathers on the body. I tried with four but hair orientation is very difficult to manage so im kinda stuck :(

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